In Protest, Bosnia Plays ''Attack the Journalist''

Bosnia and Herzegovina's public remains gripped in a debate over the recent attack on TV journalist, Slobodan Vaskovic, with protesters developing a web based game called  “Attack the Journalist”  in which visitors can kick and punch the unfortunate Vaskovic.

“We offer you a chance to join the unconquerable government and participate in the mentioned activities. The game is free and even if you are sentenced for this, the punishment will be no more than 500 Konvertible Marks (Euro 250),” the site says, referring to a court sentence in which a local politician was ordered to pay only 250 euros for assaulting a group of journalists and throwing them out of a public press conference.

The web site offers another game, “Help him take it all” in which a player can help one of the local leaders to get as many hundred-dollar bills as he or she wishes.

“Over the past few months, the most popular game in our country is to threaten, mock, swear and even directly assault a journalist,” explains the local web site Protest that has developed the games. The web site was launched in 2007 to protest against the worsening political, economic and social situation in the country.

On Wednesday, Vaskovic was assaulted while trying to film a Serb Orthodox Church in Trebinje for popular political magazine “60 Minutes.” The TV crew was first assaulted by two men, reportedly a driver and a relative of the influential Orthodox Bishop Grigorije.

Vaskovic and his crew managed to escape and hide in the nearby office of a local non-governmental organisation, which soon became surrounded by a roughly 50-strong mob of people. Local police managed to protect the journalists and eventually escort them out of the town.

Vaskovic later reported that a vehicle with Grigorije’s driver and relative caught up with him and the two men threw rocks and stones at him, smashing the rear window of his car.

Vaskovic has became well known over the past years for investigating and reporting about alleged corruption and fraud committed by the Bosnian Serb leader, Milorad Dodik, and his links with Orthodox Church. In one of his recent statements to cameras, Dodik said he hoped that Vaskovic would get “(high) blood pressure” and that his “heart would fail”. Vaskovic has received several death threats, the last one being a week ago.

In a press statement, the Serb Orthodox Church explained that the incident was caused by journalists, who “have upset” believers with their “vulgar behavior” and attempts to film them and the church.
Milorad Dodik, who is the Premier of the Serb-dominated Bosnian entity of Republika Srpska, publicly said that he does not encourage attacks on journalists, but added that he also does not encourage media “provocations” and “lies”.

Dodik also dismissed Vaskovic's claim that he has received a letter with death threats few days ago, and implied that Vaskovic has sent the letter himself in an attempt to get more attention.

Meanwhile, some other local politicians, human rights organizations, as well as the US embassy in Bosnia, strongly condemned the attack, saying that such behavior is a serious threat to democratization in the country.

According to journalists associations, attacks and threats against journalists in Bosnia have multiplied in 2008 and beginning of 2009, in line with the worsening political, economic and social situation.